Fire and Hemlock

I had to give this book five stars, even though it isn't perfect. The plot is confusing at times, with holes that could have been filled in if the author had done some tweaking. Another drawback is that some of the best characters--like the quartet--tend to be given short shrift. Yet even with these drawbacks, a fantasy of this calibre is not likely to come along often enough so as to be taken for granted. Hence the five stars. As I mentioned above, there are plot holes, but this is a side effect of the chief beauty of this book: its mystery. The story is set in our world--1980's England, to be exact--and the fantasy elements are laid on in subtle nuances of depth and detail. A slight otherworldly quality--almost too subtle to be detected--mars an otherwise commonplace funeral. Everyday events take on the significance of revelations. The magic itself is of the type that more often than not creeps at the edges of things, pervading the story with an atmosphere that is by turns haunting, fascinating, and occasionally hilarious. With a deft hand the author weaves the ballad of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer together with the story a young girl, and soon enough the magic of legend and her mundane life intertwine. Polly is a "hero" in more than one sense: not only by virtue of her role as it is projected in the ballad, but also due to her struggles to cope with an increasingly unbearable living situation. It is not only the darkness of evil magic that Polly must eventually face, but also its everyday counterpart: the divorce and callous negligence of her parents. The cast of characters and their relationships are wonderful, down to every last individual; it is their believability and richness that makes this book impossible to put down. There is also a refreshing realism in their interactions that plays a necessary counterpoint to the otherwise murky strangeness of the atmosphere. Children grow to adulthood as we watch them, their friendships and alliances change; the relationship between Polly and Tom Lynn grows ever more complex, undergoing constant shifts and adjustments. You will find this book in the Young Adult section, but most readers of fantasy know that this is no reason to be put off. Diana Wynne Jones is one of the best YA fantasy writers around, and this is one of her darkest, deepest, and most complex books. You may need to reread it to fully understand what has happened by the somewhat bewildering conclusion--but if you enjoy it the first time, that should not be a chore, but a pleasure.

The cover is indeed terrible, but don't be put off. The editorial description (below) doesn't capture the essence of the book, but don't be put off."A photograph called "Fire and Hemlock" that has been on the wall since her childhood. A story in a book of supernatural stories -- had Polly read it before under a different title? Polly, packing to return to college, is distracted by picture and story, clues from the past stirring memories. But why should she suddenly have memories that do not seem to correspond to the facts?Fire and Hemlock is an intricate, romantic fantasy filled with sorcery and intrigue, magic and mystery, all background to a most unusual and thoroughly satisfying love story."This is a retelling in modern guise of the stories of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer--musicians at the mercy of the Queen of the Dark Fairies (the Unseelie Court).Polly is 10 and lonely when she meets Tom Lynn, a cellist with the British Philharmonic Orchestra, on Halloween, when she and a friend dress as witches and dare each other to go by the local big, empty (haunted?) house. It appears that it ISN'T empty; a funeral is taking place. Tom Lynn is the ex-husband of one of the bereaved; he takes Polly outside to get away from the funeral, and they form a society of heroes-in-training. From there their friendship develops through letters, as Polly loves to make up imaginary worlds, and Tom likes to embellish the stories. The magical relationship develops slowly, as it seems that all Tom Lynn writes becomes true. As Polly grows toward adulthood, Tom becomes more enmeshed in the lives of the Leroys (the fairies), and it is up to Polly to pull him free.This is a fine novel. The charaterizations are excellent--Tom Lynn in particular. Jones doesn't make it a Disney fairy story (all the scary or hurtful parts cut out) but leaves the edges in.Diana Wynne Jones writes some books for the middle-school set (like the Chrestomanci quartet) and some young-adult books (the Dalemark Quartet, Dark Lord of Derkholm & Year of the Griffin). She is thus stuck in the kids/fantasy ghetto (like Ursula LeGuin). Under a different name, I think this would be reviewed with other magical realists. Highly recommended.

Okay, I confess - though I read much of Diana Wynne Jones's oeuvre in middle and junior high school, I'd almost forgotten about her books until I went into Harry withdrawal post-Goblet. How stupid of me - this is a wonderful writer whose books are definitely not just for kids. I now regularly search the racks whenever I wander into a bookstore (in other words, every few days) and was thrilled yesterday to find this title, which I hadn't read before.On to specifics - I'm not going to summarize, that's done adequately elsewhere - but to start with, I could not put this book down. I started reading it around 12:15 AM, thinking "I'll just read a few chapters, whet my appetite, then go to bed." Nice try. 420 pages later, it was 3 AM and I was quite tempted to read the whole thing again. Partly because of the writing, which is absorbing, idiomatic, and (for you fellow Americans) not so terribly British as to be noticeably odd (although I DID finally prove to my parents that yes, "busking" is a real word of British origin - for non-musicians, it means "playing on the street with your case open for money", basically, and other people DO do it). And that brings me to another reason I love it, the musical aspect. Besides being a manic bibliophile, I'm also a string quartet addict, so when Tom Lynn strikes out to form a quartet, I'm right there with him - one of the few things that makes life worthwhile, as far as I'm concerned. Those scenes rang true, as well, which doesn't always happen when a writer seeks to insert musical color, so kudos there. The fantasy and magic aspect isn't nearly as overt as in some of her other works - no moving castles, other worlds, or oddball wizards here - but is instead woven in gently, becoming more visible as the story progresses, until you realize it's been creeping up on you for a while. Eerily believable.Unusually, the book is almost all flashback - when we meet Polly Whittacker, she is 19 years old and getting ready to return to college for her second year, but most of the story takes place between her ages of 10 and 15. I like it - it's different, and getting all that back story in is not an easy task for a writer without letting all the seams show. When we finally arrive at the present, the pace rockets forward - the last 50 pages absolutely fly. Also unusually, things are not fully explained in the "Coda" - you have to work them out yourself to some extent. Hooray for a writer who doesn't feel she has to spoon-feed readers everything! And as a final aside, you could do a lot worse than to take the list of books Tom Lynn mails to Polly over the years and use it as a summer reading list, no matter how old you are. Diana Wynne Jones is my major (re)discovery of the year - good kids books are worthwhile at any age; they usually don't have swears or love scenes, but if it's well-written you neither need nor miss them, so don't be ashamed of picking up a book that may say "10 and up" or "young adult" on t